Child marriage is as popular as ever in Bangladesh

'Saddest bride' among many teenage girls forced to wed, despite law protecting them

﻿Fifteen-year-old Nasoin Akhter reluctantly poses for a photo at a beauty parlour on the day of her wedding to a 32-year-old man she is forced to marry ﻿in Manikganj, Bangladesh. ﻿

Photo: Allison Joyce, Stringer

On her wedding day, 15-year-old Nasoin Akhter looked "melancholic," according to photographer Allison Joyce, who documented the teenage girl's wedding to her 32-year-old husband, Mohammad Hasamur Rahman, last week in Manikganj, Bangladesh.

"It's tradition for the bride to look shy and coy during the wedding," Joyce said in an email. "But I noticed this sadness and unspoken fear and uncertainty even when she was in her room with her friends before the ceremony or at the parlor with her sister (who was also married around the same age). She was withdrawn and quiet."

Although Nasoin Akhter's marriage is technically illegal in Bangladesh, laws against child marriage are rarely enforced. And despite what government officials promise and the fact that outside organizations consider it a human-rights violation, the practice remains popular in Bangladesh.

Known consequences

According to a report published in June by Human Rights Watch, the country has the fourth-highest rate of child marriage in the world, with 29 percent of Bangladeshi girls married before the age of 15, and 65 percent before the age of 18.

"Child marriage around the world is associated with many harmful consequences, including health dangers associated with early pregnancy, lower educational achievement for girls who marry earlier, a higher incidence of spousal violence, and an increased likelihood of poverty," the report states. "Global data shows that girls from the poorest 20 percent of families are twice as likely to marry before 18 as girls whose families are among the richest 20 percent."

Poverty, tradition, the sexual harassment of unmarried girls and limited access to education drives the practice, convincing parents that they're doing what's best for their daughters, according to the report.

On Instagram, Joyce wrote that Nasoin Akhter was the "saddest bride I have ever seen." And the photographer told The Post what she found surprising about Akhter's wedding was that her family wasn't poor: "What was surprising to me is that Nasoin is from a very wealthy family. One of the causes cited for child marriage is poverty, but her father is a wealthy businessman with multiple two-story houses."

Even though Bangladesh has reduced poverty and maternal mortality, achieved gender parity in primary and secondary school enrollment, and is improving on women's rights, it still struggles to tackle child marriage, according to the report.

Strategy put on hold

The Bangladesh government's proposed plan to tackle this issue has raised awareness - but one of its strategies was to lower the legal marriage age from 18 to 16. After an international outcry, it was put on hold. On a local level, "widespread complicity" by officials has facilitated many of the child marriages.

"Interviewees consistently described local government officials issuing forged birth certificates showing girls' ages as over 18, in return for bribes of as little as US$1.30," the report reads.

"The Bangladesh government has said some of the right things, but its proposal to lower the age of marriage for girls sends the opposite message," Heather Barr, a senior researcher on women's rights, said to Human Rights Watch.